4 ms·

No one ever gets a single "peanut". So unless you mush mouth the "S", the reasonable expectation for both your cohabitator and the robot is to bring peanuts and

No one ever gets a single "peanut". So unless you mush mouth the "S", the reasonable expectation for both your cohabitator and the robot is to bring peanuts and butter. A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk".

grecy 8y ago
> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602
- huffmsa 8y ago
  And that's what makes it interesting. Peanut butter versus peanuts, butter is easy. No one gets a single peanut. As for the phone number, that's why anyone in a serious occupation (aviation, military, etc) treat each digit as is stand-alone. Three-zero-three-six-zero-two.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >No one gets a single peanut You'd be surprised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPFQm9PQ_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPFQm9PQ_M
- viksit 8y ago
  This is a very interesting observation. The whole point of speech to text models being biased towards the US in terms of training data and innovation is valid not only across the larger things (gender/race/religion) but just small things like this. And these are likely to cause daily problems.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  "Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of - a coconut - [number] coconuts - shredded coconut "Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)
  - whoopdedo 8y ago
    The one I thought of was "peanut butter M&Ms"
  - oralty 8y ago
    If i'm making a list as a reminder to actually pick up items.. coconut will suffice.
    - p1necone 8y ago
      This is a good point - in reality Alexa doesn't really have to do a great job transcribing at all if it's just constructing a list as a reminder for you later. If this is a precursor to being able to quickly voice order stuff off amazon to be delivered though it's a different story.
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      Yes, I agree. If you're writing a list for yourself, a bare "coconut" is a typical entry. But if you're dictating a shopping list to someone else, you're quite unlikely to say "coconut" because that isn't grammatical. So it turns into a question of how people think about dictating to Alexa.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

grecy 8y ago

> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602

huffmsa 8y ago
And that's what makes it interesting. Peanut butter versus peanuts, butter is easy. No one gets a single peanut. As for the phone number, that's why anyone in a serious occupation (aviation, military, etc) treat each digit as is stand-alone. Three-zero-three-six-zero-two.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >No one gets a single peanut You'd be surprised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPFQm9PQ_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPFQm9PQ_M
viksit 8y ago
This is a very interesting observation. The whole point of speech to text models being biased towards the US in terms of training data and innovation is valid not only across the larger things (gender/race/religion) but just small things like this. And these are likely to cause daily problems.
thaumasiotes 8y ago
"Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of - a coconut - [number] coconuts - shredded coconut "Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)
- whoopdedo 8y ago
  The one I thought of was "peanut butter M&Ms"
- oralty 8y ago
  If i'm making a list as a reminder to actually pick up items.. coconut will suffice.
  - p1necone 8y ago
    This is a good point - in reality Alexa doesn't really have to do a great job transcribing at all if it's just constructing a list as a reminder for you later. If this is a precursor to being able to quickly voice order stuff off amazon to be delivered though it's a different story.
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    Yes, I agree. If you're writing a list for yourself, a bare "coconut" is a typical entry. But if you're dictating a shopping list to someone else, you're quite unlikely to say "coconut" because that isn't grammatical. So it turns into a question of how people think about dictating to Alexa.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]